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Apple's North Carolina Data Center to Focus on Cloud Computing?

My 2 cents - maybe they are planning to open up MobileMe. Free year when you buy an iPhone? It's getting harder, I think, to charge 100$ bucks for services Google offers for free. You're basically paying for a pretty interface.

That said, MobileMe really improves the iPhone experience and it's another hook to latch onto consumers. If you have this fantastic integrated system for your personal data customers will be less likely to switch to a new phone ecosystem when their contract comes up.
 
I've read some posts on this forum saying they would never trust Google with their personal information.

I hope those people are consistent and don't approve of this either ;]
 
El Tuga said:
Don't you guys see it? It's simple...Apple will soon offer MobileMe FOR FREE to every Mac, iPhone, iBook (tablet) user!!!

..........

What do you think?
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I think it would be about dang time! For Apple's price premiums, they need to be a complete solution out of the box. Charging for MobileMe has always seemed silly, but now more than ever.

Set MobileMe free!!!
 
Another Thought

Maybe Apple is trying to enter a new market. Notice how they denied the Google Voice App. I don't think it will be worth there cost if Google is their partner right now. Well maybe they want to add the same feature in Mobile Me to make it worth its cost. Another thought maybe that they might try to use iTunes to control what Applications you have installed on your computer just like they do with the iPod Touch, iPhone, and future iProducts.
 
sishaw said:
Who knows what wizardry Apple may have up its corporate sleeve? I, for one, would be happy with more storage space per user on Me.com.
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that and how about simply more stable service.

MacFly123 said:
I can only imagine how crippled the world would be if there are problems now, let alone in the future when virtually everything is a computer and connected. :eek:
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remember a show called Dark Angel.

skate71290 said:
Any money on it Apple will copy Microsoft's idea and put iWork and iLife online only to save HDD space?
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i dread the thought. especially when something happens and my system is crippled by lack of access

Doctor Q said:
It's ironic that the Internet (nee ARPANET) was created to keep everything connected when the world was crippled!
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yes and no. Arpanet was created to connect government, military etc. the notion of multiple paths of connection was in case one was crippled

El Tuga said:
Don't you guys see it? It's simple...Apple will soon offer MobileMe FOR FREE to every Mac, iPhone, iBook (tablet) user!!!

I'm so convinced that that's main drive for the data center! Think of it, it would make so much sense.
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makes more sense that this data center, with faster and more stable service, the whole iwork.com thing, more space and perhaps some limited cloud apps would be to drive mobileme sales.

I'm sure this would boost apple's market share in each market to unseen levels. What do you think?
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and drive them right into about a thousand antitrust cases including by the guys from Psystar who would win since the only defense Apple has right now is their tiny percent of the market

dam0dred said:
My 2 cents - maybe they are planning to open up MobileMe. Free year when you buy an iPhone? It's getting harder, I think, to charge 100$ bucks for services Google offers for free. You're basically paying for a pretty interface.
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you are paying for a lot more than that. MobileMe ain't just for and about the iphone.

I've been using it since it was still .mac and even then it was the cheapest web host I could find
 
I posted about the cloud computing when the server farm was first announced. They are behind the curve as microsoft and googled started building there's a few years ago. You think the next version of OS X is small, wait until 10.7 comes out. It will be even smaller and will incorporate apps for cloud computing (for a fee base of course). Instead of buying your apps, you will buy package deals to use it. Heck, you can already do photo and video editing through cloud computing. Going to be interesting what they will charge us.
 
Mobile me 2.0?

anyone thought of this?

Mobile me will come in 3 flavors.


1) "sliver" Package Basic package will be free. Min. storage and features. Unlimited use. (meaning, you can use it for more then a year)
2) "gold" package Everything in "sliver". Gold package for $5o a year. More storage and a bit more features.
3) Platinum package Everything in "sliver" and "gold" . $100 for two years. etc...

get my drift?
 
skate71290 said:
our wonderful Mr Jobs of course lol, how come you don't want it? i can see two reasons, limited usage/slow internet or if you are doing some "legal" downloading it can be a pain in the ass lol x
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:rolleyes:

Yea steve thought up the idea of cloud computing.

Some people.....
 
It's a bookstore, stupid.

Or maybe the article is just plain wrong and Apple is beginning a whole new initiative, more revolutionary than the iTunes music and video store, to accompany a new class of devices…

Maybe it's a bookstore for a book-sized device that probably plays video and all other media too. Maybe it will even do email, web browsing and basic text, photo and video editing??
 
albusseverus said:
Or maybe the article is just plain wrong and Apple is beginning a whole new initiative, more revolutionary than the iTunes music and video store, to accompany a new class of devices…

Maybe it's a bookstore for a book-sized device that probably plays video and all other media too. Maybe it will even do email, web browsing and basic text, photo and video editing??
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You're describing my Windows Netbook, by the way.
 
Nothing in the world more asinine

There is nothing in the world more asinine than the concept of cloud computing.

Yeah, I'm going to hand over all my privacy, my applications, and all the work I do over to some centralized brain location (with no one looking over my shoulder, right) just for a gain in processing power and to be able to do it while I'm driving and something to do in the public toilet other than talk to myself on the cellphone.

The "P" in PC will always stand for personal, and once people realize they don't feel right using cloud computing to do porn and cruise hookup sites, you can kiss the entire concept of cloud computing bye-bye, just like another fantastic technological breakthrough (co-processors) that, despite the obvious advance in tech and superiority, did not for a single second slow the descent of Amiga and Commodore into extinction.

This whole "on the go" mentality has "got to go".

Will cloud computing work for porn? No. Ergo, no go.

:apple:
 
bearcatrp said:
I posted about the cloud computing when the server farm was first announced. They are behind the curve as microsoft and googled started building there's a few years ago. You think the next version of OS X is small, wait until 10.7 comes out. It will be even smaller and will incorporate apps for cloud computing (for a fee base of course). Instead of buying your apps, you will buy package deals to use it. Heck, you can already do photo and video editing through cloud computing. Going to be interesting what they will charge us.
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This is exactly what I don't want. I do not want to pay a monthly fee to use an app. That's just ridiculous. Why would I do that? Eventually, I'll pay more in monthly fees, then it would have cost me to buy the software. I don't want to rent software.

I want the box, with the disc, and I want it installed on my computer, and I don't want any company touching anything that I make with my own software. It's ridiculous.

Cloud based computing is okay for certain things, like keeping contacts in sync, updating calendar events between multiple devices, etc. But it is completely retarded when it comes to entire programs.

Picture this. iWork is completely cloud based. I have an essay that is due tomorrow, that I need to finish. I click on the Pages icon in my Dock. Safari opens up, and it can't connect to the internet. I try to trouble shoot, but the problem is on my ISP's end. I'm completely screwed, I can't even print out the incomplete essay, because the file is on some Apple server in the middle of frickin' nowhere.

Now that problem is completely gone if iWork isn't a stupid cloud based app. Even without the internet, I can go in and finish typing up my essay print it out, and get my A on it.

That is why it is an ungodly stupid idea to make applications cloud based.

And what's with all of this crap about software taking up HDD space. It's not 1998 anymore people, you most likely have 160GB or larger HDD. The 1.2 GBs of space required by iWork is not going to fill your HDD.

And anyone who is talking about making Photoshop into a cloud based app is just, I don't even know how to describe you. Because don't we all love editing 30 layer images over the internet. Photoshop is already slow enough on my iMac, I don't need to have to wait for edits to register on a server.

/End Rant

EDIT: @xbjilb- I completely agree.

Don
 
Maybe it will also become a research centre and factory to build their own chips. They want total proprietory control over their own platform to prevent future Psystars.
 
I think this is a good thing. They need a second data center out west as well to be like google with multiply data centers to reduce latency
 
MacRumors said:
... such as Akamai and Limelight Networks to serve significant amounts of content to users, and some have speculated that the new data center will allow Apple to achieve cost savings by bringing a significant part of that third-party content delivery system in-house.
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'some' who have speculated that don't know what they're talking about and don't have a clue how services such as Akamai work.
Akamai constructs a virtual network via an enormous network of routers across the world and deals with the major telcos that allow them to glean incredibly detailed routing information via exclusive on-site presence. Between the two, a user accessing iTunes in, say, Australia is actually routed into the Akamai network near the user for incredibly fast routing and caching to the iTunes servers... kinda like a worm-hole bypassing physical space.
An enormous server farm in NC has nothing to do with this kind of technology.
 
GQB said:
yeah, but one that isn't a tasteless piece of cheap plastic running bloated 20th century technology.
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Right, it's a stylish, overpriced, worthless, piece of aluminum that's running an OS meant for a phone.

Don
 
Dmac77 said:
This is exactly what I don't want. I do not want to pay a monthly fee to use an app. That's just ridiculous. Why would I do that? Eventually, I'll pay more in monthly fees, then it would have cost me to buy the software.
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think about this for a moment.

right now the trend with Apple is to update ilife and iwork once a year.

so that's $158 plus tax a year to have the lastest version at your fingertips.

now as I understand the way cloud computing works, your data stays on your computer. only the apps are 'in the cloud'. your data is temporarily sent up, manipulated and then the product comes back down.

so then you've got MobileMe. $99 a year for an email account, storage space for websites, photo galleries etc.

and then iwork.com, which is currently free but one possible answer to that is to meld it into mobileme (and perhaps also offer it stand alone for a smaller price).

so now, what if for $150 a year, you could have your MobileMe, the iwork.com AND cloud access to ilife and iwork which would be instantly updated when a new one comes out. that's actually a nice package.

that said, I don't see it happening anytime soon cause we'd need some serious connection updates or the bandwidth won't handle the load. but I can see it as a future offering. perhaps not the only one but an option for those that want to use it. the rest can still to localized apps
 
Dmac77 said:
Picture this. iWork is completely cloud based. I have an essay that is due tomorrow, that I need to finish. I click on the Pages icon in my Dock. Safari opens up, and it can't connect to the internet. I try to trouble shoot, but the problem is on my ISP's end. I'm completely screwed, I can't even print out the incomplete essay, because the file is on some Apple server in the middle of frickin' nowhere.
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or...
let's say you're traveling in Europe and you meet a vulture capitalist in Barcelona over tapas as you tell him about your brilliant piece of software. You want to impress him before he sobers up but, gee, your app is on your Mac back in Berkeley. Bummer dude. Woulda been nice out on the Cloud, huh?

or...
You go to print your paper for your class and your hard drive has crashed. bummer again.

Just saying that there's an argument to be made for and against any technology.
 
Dmac77 said:
Right, it's a stylish, overpriced, worthless, piece of aluminum that's running an OS meant for a phone.

Don
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Boy... that dominance of profit share and mindshare really supports that opinion, huh?
 
xbjllb said:
There is nothing in the world more asinine than the concept of cloud computing.

Yeah, I'm going to hand over all my privacy, my applications, and all the work I do over to some centralized brain location (with no one looking over my shoulder, right) just for a gain in processing power and to be able to do it while I'm driving and something to do in the public toilet other than talk to myself on the cellphone.
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Couldn't have said it better :D
 
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